paint thinner or alcohol to clean ski bases?

I had some pine gunk on my bases from a recent thru-the-crusty-trees tour, not very much really, and went to Marmot to buy some wax remover. They want 30 bucks for a can of that stuff. What the hell? It's just some kind of hydrocarbon soup, how can they possibly justify 30 bucks for less than a pint? More per ounce than a reasonably toasty single malt for christsakes.

Anyways, I walked out of there, went home, soaked a rag lightly in some cheap paint thinner and wiped that crap off very easily. Then quickly dried off with some clean rags, let it air a little, and put some new wax on.

Seems apparent that the base material of a ski is some manner of specialized hydro(flouro?)carbon material that should be treated with a little bit of TLC. A little bit of black color did come up on my cleaning rags for instance. But is there any real harm in occasionally using household stuff like paint thinner or isopropyl whenever the bases need cleaning between wax, if you can save yourself some serious single malt money doing so?

the wax removers I've used in the past smell like they are basically some variation of the degreaser/cleaner Citrisolve.

You can buy 'Citric Blend Cleaning Solvent' from Tognar Toolworks for $8 a pint, but you might be able to find regular ol' Citrisolve for even cheaper.

I've always used denatured alcohol, available at the hardware store for very cheap. It evaporates very quickly. It's a good idea to wax soon afterwards so the bases don't dry out. -Bill

I use white gas too.

At home-The most approved method by ski manufactures to clean a ski base without degrading the base material is a hot wax scrape clean. Melt ski wax on with an iron cover the ski completely, use (old) wax like 0 degree or cheap parrafin you don't use often. Move the iron up and down to keep the wax resonably warm then Scrape the wax off completely with sharp metal scraper before the wax cools, so the wax comes off in one or two ribbons. All the stuff should come off, pitch, glue, oils and your base is primed for a fresh wax without destroying the base with harsh chemicals.

Of course, on the hill is another story. Larry's stove fuel idea works great in a pinch if skins were left on the skis to long in the sun. I always carry a small plastic/metal scraper with me. But all flamable substances are really bad for the life of the ski base, it tends to concave the base material leading to stone grinds that cost more than the hot wax scrape.

Then again, walking over rocks, branches, shallow creeks with my skis on is not that great on the ski base.
Joe

I just use goo-gone, its just a citrus based solvent...

I clean my bases with more wax.  I feel that most of the solvents people use dry out the base material too much.  The heat involved in waxing with an iron is enough to lift minor contaminants out of the base and suspend them in the wax.  When you scrape, bye-bye gunk.

Before I wax, I make a few passes with a brass brush, then with a scotchbrite pad, always making sure to use even pressure across the width of the base.  This opens up the structure in the base and also lifts out foreign particles.

You cannot wax too much!  Most skis on the world cup are waxed dozens and dozens of times before they ever touch snow.  So much in fact, that the ski's core is penetrated with wax.

Spring and summer backcountry skiing is especially abrasive on bases and can dry out even a well waxed ski.  Using solvents, IMHO, just makes bases drier...and that's not a good thing. :

goo-gone

Quite a bit cheaper than Citrasolve, but I use both.

Solvents bad.

So is it skin goop on the bottom of my skis from last night's dusk patrol, or the pine and pollen gunk that seasoned the sweet corn?

Having rental property I have a bit of experience with cleaning stuff. If you're using citrus cleaner the best stuff by far I've found is ZEP citrus cleaner available at Maintenance Warehouse for about $10 a gallon. I don't know what it will do to bases though. The few times I've needed to clean gunk off my bases I've used paint thinner with no discernable problems.